August 4 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
Article in the Henry Bulletin, Page 2, about bathing suits, titled “Bathing Costumes in Bright Shades – Gayly Printed, Brilliantly Hued Solid Colored Silks Popular”: “The voice of the censor has been silenced – the beach police are no longer the ultimate arbiters of surf fashions and milady may not pirouette on the summer sands in almost any costume she chooses, notes a fashion writer in the New York Herald Tribune. As long as the one-piece or athletic swimming suit was banned, it was impossible to criticize it impartially – it was the symbol of rebellious youth, and on that score it attracted countless adherents who might otherwise have passed it by. The end of the sanctimonious tumult and shouting, however, finds the mode in a more even and balanced mood and it now is possible to evaluate the semi-masculine swimming costume from a purely fashion viewpoint.
75 years ago – 1950
Thieves entered Globman’s department store and stole $1,500 (worth $19,900 today) from 44 cash registers. Additionally, they did about $3,000 damage to the cash registers. They tried to get into a large safe but failed.
50 years ago – 1975
A 24-year-old woman had threatened to jump off a third floor fire escape at the Pythian building. Police and firemen talked her into going down to the second floor fire escape, where she went into the building through a doorway. Meanwhile, though, the firemen had put up a safety net below the platform to catch her in case she did jump. It was policewoman Ann Draper who calmed her down. She was certified to Central State Hospital in Petersburg.
25 years ago – 2000
Chuck and Judie Freels discovered that about $6,000 worth of peaches had been stolen from about 100 of their peach trees.
Jobs advertised in the classified ads included inventory counters, machinists, maintenance, mechanics, machine designers, OTR drivers, MIS help desk, general laborers, spray booth operators, upholsterers, nurses, forklift operators, sales, telemarketing, tire changers and more.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.